Timeline Tuesday Part 7: The Wedding Day

It's been a wordy couple posts, so Thursday's post will have some eye candy.  Today is our last installment of Timeline Tuesday (check out Part 6 here) and the only thing left is to make a timeline for your wedding day.  This is something that your wedding planner will help with, and it is a document that will ease your mind and help you relax knowing everything is being taken care of.

Here's five of my tips:

1.  Start early.  As soon as you have the ceremony and reception times set, start a word document and put those times in.  Everything else, from getting ready and pictures to cocktail hour, receiving line and speeches, will be planned around the times that are already set.

2.  After you've written out the big things in your timeline, start putting yourself in other peoples shoes.  I find it really helps to go through the day from the wedding party's perspective, then the guests, vendors, etc.  When planning for vendors, consider what time they will be arriving, what they will need once they get there, and if they need anyone on site to help them.  This is where having a wedding planner is super helpful, because they will direct the other vendors and help them with anything they need.

3.  Allow for breaks.  You will need to fix your makeup, use the washroom, etc.  Plan for this.  Plan to spend a couple minutes alone with your new spouse - during the cocktail hour is a great time, between the ceremony and reception, or you can sneak away between dinner and speeches if you need to.

4.  Print it out!  Send a simplified timeline to anyone who needs it, from your maid-of-honour to the photographer and venue.  Include phone numbers of a few key people so that everyone can get a hold of each other if they need to.

5.  Even the best planned events can stray a little bit from the timeline, and that's ok.  At the end of the day you will be married to the love of your life, and that's really all that matters.  The best part of a schedule that doesn't quite go to plan is that probably nobody will even notice.  If you are putting together a program for the reception, leave times out and simply have a list of what is to come, so people won't be looking at the clock all night.

So there you have it, a few things that we keep in mind when creating wedding day timelines!